A total of 25 players were picked up in the IPL 2012 auction which was marked by the absence of the Pune Warriors franchise, who opted out of the IPL and also withdrew their contract with the BCCI. Ravindra Jadeja was the costliest buy while Mahela Jayawardene and R Vinay Kumar also fetched a million or above.

The first lot of players in the auction were the marquee players and as expected Ravindra Jadeja was the priced item on the list. Chennai Super Kings and Deccan Chargers were tied after both bid USD 2 million for the all-rounder and eventually Chennai bagged him via the tie-breaker.

Jadeja, however, will not receive the entire 2 million and instead will only be paid 950,000, the price he was signed for by the Kochi Tuskers. According to a new IPL rule, the remaining 1.05 million as well as the tie-breaker amount will go to the BCCI.

Mahela Jayawardene was acquired by the Delhi Daredevils franchise for a price of USD 1.4 million. The other marquee player, Muttiah Muralitharan went only for a touch above his base price with Royal Challengers Bangalore getting him for USD 220,000.

In the second, third and fourth lots, which were for batsmen, wicket-keepers and allrounders, there were a few value buys while there were plenty of players who went unsold. Some of the best buys were Andre Russell, Herschelle Gibbs and Dinesh Chandimal. There were also a big surprise with Kevin O’Brien going unsold. Players like Mark Boucher, Doug Bracewell, Matt Prior, Ravi Bopara, Marlon Samuels and a few more did not find any bidders.

The fifth lot was for fast bowlers and R Vinay Kumar was the player who teams bid furiously for. Eventually, Royal Challengers Bangalore got him for USD 1 million while the next preferred bowler was RP Singh who was acquired by Mumbai Indians for USD 600,000. S Sreesanth went to Rajasthan Royals for his base price of USD 400,000. Players like Vernon Philander, Peter Siddle, Tim Southee, Ravi Rampaul, Fidel Edwards and Lonwabo Tsotsobe went unsold.

The sixth lot of players auctioned were the spinners with West Indian Sunil Narine getting the best price. Kolkata Knight Riders acquired him for USD 700,000. Ramesh Pawar (160,000) and Brad Hogg (180,000) went to Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals respectively while Mumbai Indians got Robin Peterson for USD 100,000. The likes of Graeme Swann, Ajantha Mendis and Rangana Herath went unsold.

In the last two phases of the auction, six players were picked up from a short list of 34 players including Daniel Harris, Azhar Mahmood and Thisara Perera. In the final phase of the auction, some of the unsold players were re-auctioned and Darren Bravo and Doug Bracewell were picked up